US military ‘abandons SEAL who shot Osama’

A Navy SEAL who claims to have fired the bullets that killed Osama bin Laden claims he has been abandoned by the military.

The Navy SEAL, whose identity remains a secret, has told how he killed America’s most wanted terrorist and then had to tie his hysterical wife to a bed.

The SEAL, simply identified as “The Shooter” in an Esquire magazine story, said he has left the service — four years short of pension eligibility — and is struggling to find work and protect his family since retiring in September.

“It took a long time for him to get to a place of trusting me, of telling his story over time and of ultimately understanding that it was a bigger story,’’ said Phil Bronstein, author of the Esquire article. “It was more about the kind of life these guys face after service than it was even about the raid.’’

Titled “The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden…Is Screwed,” the story describes the SEAL’s anger at the lack of support offered by the Pentagon or administration for troops once they come home.

“The Shooter” said that, in the aftermath of the May 2011 raid in which he shot bin Laden three times, his marriage with his wife ended.

He claims that he is now living without healthcare or a pension and the US government has failed to provide protection for his wife or children. He said he fears a terrorist reprisal should his name ever be leaked into the public domain.

He has trained his children to hide in their bathtub, as it is the safest place in their house and showed his wife how to use their shotgun.

He also described in detail the killing of bin Laden in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The terrorist was much taller than he expected him to be and balder and holding his wife Amal in front of him as a shield.

“And he’s moving forward. I don’t know if she’s got a vest and she’s being pushed to martyr them both,” he said.

“He’s got a gun within reach. He’s a threat. I need to get a head shot so he won’t have a chance to clack himself off (kill himself).

“In that second, I shot him, two times in the forehead. Bap! Bap! The second time as he’s going down.

“He crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again, Bap! Same place.

“That time I used my EOTech red-dot holo sight. He was dead.

“Not moving. His tongue was out. I watched him take his last breaths, just a reflex breath.”

“His forehead was gruesome. It was split open in the shape of a V. I could see his brains spilling out over his face.”

Other members of the SEALs have claimed that they, too, shot bin Laden.